Hundley-Valentine Feud Won’t Die

NEW YORK —  New York Met Manager Bobby Valentine admits he made a “bad guess” when he speculated Todd Hundley blamed him for being replaced by Mike Piazza on “an Italian thing.”

Hundley, dealt to the Dodgers last week, has said Valentine had it in for him.

“Todd does a lot of that stuff,” Valentine told the Madison Square Garden Network in an interview broadcast Thursday. “It’s an Italian thing. He thinks that I would do something because he’s not Italian or because I am Italian. I think that’s ridiculous.”

Hundley, whose best friend on the Mets was reliever John Franco--an Italian-American--flatly rejected Valentine’s assertion.

“I could never and would never stoop to Bobby Valentine’s level,” Hundley said in a conference call from Los Angeles.

Late Thursday night, Valentine said he was confused by the question about why his relationship with Hundley had deteriorated.

“I was only guessing at what I was supposed to be responding to,” Valentine said in a telephone interview from his Texas home. “I didn’t know what Todd said and I was asked to respond. I guess I made a bad guess. . . . I don’t think Todd has any problem with any race, creed or color.”